Matt Golinski plates gourmet meals at the 2021 St Lawrence Wetlands Weekend
How the celebrity chef turns local ingredients into gourmet meals for the 2021 Wetlands Weekend
Mackay
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Cider with bursts of citrus from finger limes and a Turkish delight liqueur cocktail with fairy floss provided the perfect precursor to a six-course meal from celebrity chef Matt Golinski.
Uniquely flavoured drinks from Sarina Sugar Shed, Goanna Brewing and The Farm Fruit Wines complemented gourmet dishes using local ingredients.
The theme for the delectable food and drinks at the Greater Whitsunday Food Network’s Lunch with Matt was overwhelmingly local.
On a day of perfect weather at the 2021 St Lawrence Wetlands Weekend, Golinski captured more than 150 diners with tales of how he sourced the food for his menu.
He said he was happy to be back in the Isaac region using ingredients he knew would arrive in prime condition.
“I know the strawberries are going to be perfect, the zucchinis will be perfect,” he said.
“I know exactly what to expect when I arrive here to start prepping.
“It’s nice to be back again. The hardest part is that every time I come back I’ve got to cook something completely different, often with the same ingredients.
“So it challenges me to come up with new stuff.”
Chilli mud crabs were a huge success back in 2019, for those who knew how to eat them, but Golinski said they swore they would never do them again.
So this time he turned mud crab into san choy bao with three different flavours, and colours of finger lime; finished with a coconut yoghurt and macadamias.
The second canape had slow-cooked smoked ham hock on a chickpea cracker.
“I was inspired by trips I’ve had out to Emerald. The chickpea farms are an important part of the Isaac region so I wanted to work something into a dish,” Golinski said.
“I had never actually made that before but it’s basically chickpea flour, with water, spread out on baking paper and dehydrated.
“Then when you deep fry it in really hot oil, it’s like a papadam.
“We used Eungella milk, heated it up and added some lemon so it curdled and you end up with ricotta, or paneer cheese.
“Then on top of that is coriander and baby amaranth.”
Together with the pineapple, he joked it was basically an Indian Hawaiian pizza.
Golinski said it was essential to have barramundi and mud crab on the menu when he was in this region.
But he said the menu was constantly evolving right up until a few days before the event.
“The reason that happens is the lunch you’re having is based around exactly what’s available in this region right now,” he said.
“That dish (in front of you) was going to have corn on the bottom and then I rang the farmer three days ago and asked if he had that corn and he said it’s been too cold and it hasn’t come on so that dish evolved into something else.
“I said have you got zucchini flowers and he said ‘yeah’, so I said ‘get me a whole lot of male zucchini flowers and I'll make polenta and I’ll mould that through it’.
“The button squash and the zucchini were the perfect size that all they need is some olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper – it’s almost a crime to cook them when they’re like that.
“The beautiful prawns and barramundi came from Shore Fresh (Seafoods) in Mackay.”
The tasty oyster mushrooms from Whitsunday Mushrooms in Bucasia atop the sirloin steak and the unusual sweet basil ice-cream led to plenty of dinner table discussion as the afternoon evolved.
The 2021 Lunch with Matt in pictures, course by course >>>
Isaac Deputy Mayor Kelly Vea Vea said the St Lawrence lunch began with about 25 people on a long table under four gazebos.
The 150 diners at Golinksi’s lunch was about 50 more than in 2019.
She said she was so pleased to see it had grown to the event it was in 2021 and thanked everyone who worked behind the scenes to make it possible.
“It’s a huge logistics challenge to deliver this lunch and they’ve done an incredible job,” she said.
“I think this year after Covid, we should absolutely raise our glasses just for the opportunity to sit together and share a meal.
“We are incredibly lucky. There are people all over our country and across the globe who don’t have that ability.
“I think this is a lunch none of us will ever forget.
“I first met Matt a few years ago, the first year he came out here, and I don’t think you could meet a more talented chef, a more humble person, so we’re very extremely excited to have him back here this weekend.”
The St Lawrence event also boasted gardening lessons from Gardening Australia’s Costa Georgiadis and cooking lessons from Nik Flack from The Flackyard at Pinnacle.
There were workshops in Indigenous dance, Indigenous weaving, leatherwork, macramé and jewellery.
The event drew in about 1200 people through the gates over the three days, up by about 500 on previous years, with 130 campsites booked equating to about 450 campers.
The 20 glamping sites were booked out, up from the 10 sites offered in previous years, and food vendors reported sold-out supplies in what organisers have touted as a success.
A fundraising auction collected about $2880 including the successful sales of a chainsaw-carved brahman head at $1300, a chainsaw carved crab for $700, a bucket of worms from Costa selling for $500 and a Marion Healy painted coconut of Costa going for about $200.
The proceeds will be divided equally between the St Lawrence P&C, the St Lawrence Sports and Recreation Group, and the St Lawrence Recreational Grounds group.
And the creative spaces also drew a crowd, from chainsaw art to soap making, blacksmithing and painting coconuts.
Dozens of families camped for the weekend, with children and adults participating in tours of the St Lawrence wetlands and early morning birdwatching.
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